Omagh-born Labour PRO John Devine enjoyed a particularly good rapport with the Northern activists. Before joining the staff in Labour’s head office in October 1968, he had been a journalist with the Irish Times for fifteen years, and before that with the Belfast Telegraph. His contacts in the North were good to begin with and … Read more
Relations between individuals in Labour in the south and their comrades in the North, including Gerry Fitt of the Republican Labour Party and Paddy Devlin of the Northern Ireland Labour Party (NILP), had been reasonably strong in the late 1960s and were bolstered by the events of August 1969. When violence broke out in Derry … Read more
Under international law, sending a military force into another sovereign state without that state’s permission is classified as an illegal invasion. A UN peacekeeping force cannot enter a member state’s territory unless that state has given prior consent. Furthermore, Britain could have vetoed a UN decision as a member of the Security Council. Even if … Read more
On 13 August 1969 the Irish cabinet discussed the developing Bogside crisis. Neil Blaney, minister for agriculture, suggested sending the Irish army across the border in an attempt to provoke United Nations intervention and the consequent deployment of a UN peacekeeping force. After a brief discussion regarding possible outcomes, the cabinet wisely rejected military intervention, … Read more
Ought he to have known about that attempt to import arms? The answer is certainly ‘yes’. But the burden of evidence that I have examined leads me to conclude that he did not know. What was evident in those critical weeks was a catastrophic breakdown in the proven decision-making system in the civil service, military … Read more